Bonded
by GallifreyGryffindorGirl
Summary: The Doctor gets some advice from an unlikely source and begins to travel with Clara Oswald again, but an adventure to a market planet goes wrong and Clara ends up with a bite mark that the Doctor refuses to tell her anything about, and begins to act funny about it. With some help Clara learns what the mark is, which shocks her. Rated M for later ;)
1. Chapter 1

_Basically this fic is one that has been sitting in my folder for a long time - or at least the first chapter has. The rest of the story didn't come to me until after the stress of my assignments was off and I was free to write leisurely again. Obviously this ignores Santa and the Christmas special, but that's just for fun of course because I did love the Christmas ep. Anyway, yeah, I'll try roll out chapters quick and hope to finish it by the end of the Easter holidays. Yes, I hope you enjoy the story and feel free to review if you wish :) _

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**CHAPTER ONE**

When had their relationship become so complicated?

It was a thought that had plagued the Doctors mind ever since he lied and said goodbye to Clara four months ago. He found himself so distracted by this, that he could do little else. Even the equations on his chalk boards remained woefully unfinished – he's instead began to scribble down theories of his deteriorating friendship with Clara. And he kept coming to the same question.

Was it his fault?

He stood in the open doorway of the TARDIS and stared down at earth. He'd been in orbit of the planet for months now – something wouldn't allow him to leave. Probably the feeling that something was unfinished here. Maybe it was just the wishing hearts of an old selfish man. He sighed then and, leaving the door open so he could still see out, walked back to his chalk boards to glare at his scrawls.

Perhaps it _was_ his fault. His other faces had done a better job establishing trust with his companions than this one had. What had he done? He had forgotten how to fly the TARDIS, crashed them and then gotten them eaten by a dinosaur before Clara had gotten them to Victorian London. Then what had he done? Run away from her, admittedly for some reason his confused mind thought that a good idea, called her a needy egotistical game player (which she _could_ be. Sometimes) and then he let her think he had abandoned her to cannibalistic robots?

Even though he had been there the entire time, even though she had – as usual – shown him her loyalty, her trust, he realised now it might have been cruel of him to test her in such a way. But his mind had still been confused, addled.

And yet apart of him felt their relationship had been fine – not the same way it had been with chin boy but they were both still trying to get used to the new personality that came with this face – until he had come to her school. He admitted to the darkest most selfish part of his mind he hadn't at all been happy she had a 'boyfriend' anyway. But it didn't seem right to tell her that. He knew how that conversation would go – she would point out his first truly coherent words to her 'I'm not your boyfriend Clara'. And he was right, he wasn't. Chin boy had thought perhaps there was something between them, but he'd been too afraid of losing anyone else to even truly consider the notion. After regenerating he'd found himself feeling far more… possessive of Clara. He hid it well of course. This new face was good at hiding things, especially emotions. But that didn't mean he wanted her to find someone else… she was _his_ Clara. They were bound together. She was a constant in his life, though he hadn't realised it at first, and to him that made her more to him and himself more to her than a simple word like 'boyfriend' could describe. Maybe he should have made that clearer.

Still after Danny Pink had found out about their adventures, he had made those comments that boiled his blood and planted seeds of doubt in Clara's mind… Danny Pink had made the comments that only his mind had made before, that he pushed too hard and too fast, that he lit the fires and sent his companions, his friends, to their deaths, that he ruined their lives. The words had made him angry – and they'd made Clara doubt. The Doctor never asked his friends to do something he didn't think them capable of doing, and he'd never abandon them, but after Danny's words Clara began to question him more – which in retrospect might have actually been good, because it helped her learn – but in situations where a seconds hesitation could be fatal it really wasn't needed. In the past she had been more content to ask the questions after the fact rather than during. It was a… infuriating development.

Maybe it was just a natural side effect of Clara's increased independence and confidence. When they met, or at least when she met his other face and before she'd even jumped into his time stream, her lack of self-confidence had been carefully hidden behind her wit and sarcasm. During their travels, like all his companions, she had grown – actually Clara had flourished, she had grown brighter than most under his direction – and maybe that was the problem. He had found fairly early on that his new personality had quite a… controlling streak. Maybe it was her new independence as well as the newer tendency to go against him that was the problem – admittedly her control freak tendency had just grown with him around, her control freak verses his was always going to be a bad clash. Maybe he should have made her understand this earlier too.

Then again, maybe it was the sudden inability to be honest with each other. He didn't know why that happened – but he had a feeling it was something to do with this new face and new personality. His other face, even he admitted, had been far more approachable far more open to anything that could bring Clara (or anyone else) closer to him to be honest. This new face was far more unwilling, closed off… he pushed her away, he pushed everyone away, but was unwilling to allow her to get a firmer grip on his two hearts than she already had. Maybe that was why she felt she couldn't tell him anything anymore. It was certainly why he refrained from telling her things.

But he _wanted_ to tell her things. He wanted to go back and tell her everything. But she was happy. Well… she had said she was happy, but there was no happiness in her big eyes only deep sadness. But she said she was happy, she said she was with Danny and the Doctor wasn't going to cause an argument during their goodbye by saying she was lying – and he didn't even know if she was for sure. He just suspected things weren't quite as… perfect as she made them sound. He'd seen the bracelet so obviously Danny had discovered the loop hole back to life with Clara. And he'd seen Clara doing that thing, the face she pulled when she had to steel herself to do something – so he did it for her. He gave her an out. He told her a lie. He told her he found his home, Gallifrey. He'd thought she'd look happy, and she did, but her eyes had remained sad and her hug had been tighter than usual… then again, he'd been just as odd about their goodbye. His head hurt every time he tried to puzzle all this out, and his hearts ached.

The TARDIS doors slammed shut suddenly, and the centre column began to move as the engines began to echo around the ship. The Doctor stumbled slightly as the ship rocked, she let out an irritated mechanical groan, like she was trying to tell him off for something. He lurched to the console, trying to flick some switches and press some buttons, but the TARDIS corrected them after he'd pressed them. Wherever they were going, she was determined. When they finally landed, it was with a kind of finality that told the Doctor his time machine wasn't going to move again until he'd seen whatever it was she'd brought him here to see. "What are you doing old girl?" he asked as he found his steady feet again and leaned against the console.

Her only reply was to move a lever, the break, into position with a click.

With a sigh the Doctor brushed at his clothes to beat the chalk dust from himself before he exited the TARDIS. The light outside was harsh on his eyes, oddly bright besides the overcast cloudy weather still rather dark but getting light with the rising sun. Then again anything was bright when you'd spent all that time orbiting in space. When his eyes adjusted, far quicker than any humans would have he might add, he was swift to realise that he was back in London. A park, early morning, and sometime in autumn. A small wind blew multi-coloured leaves past his feet, he followed them with his eyes as the breeze was disrupted by a passing car – drawing his eyes to a young woman with long brown hair hanging in curtains and hiding her face, she was holding a leaf, one that looked far older than the ones on the ground around her feet.

The Doctor frowned because for one thing, he knew that leaf. It saved his life once. Because the girl holding it scarified it to an emotion-eating sun. He looked back at the TARDIS, he swore he felt his blue box urging him towards her. Which was odd, because if he thought his ship would take him to Clara he would have assumed it would be the Clara he left behind – not this younger version of her. Still, he shrugged to himself, he was curious why his young Clara was out alone in the near darkness obviously upset.

He approached quietly, so she jumped when he said quite simply "I hear it's dangerous around here for a young woman – should you be out while it's still dark?"

Clara's young face wore no make-up, but other than that he could hardly see a difference in her. Maybe a different fashion sense and hair style, but her eyes where still as wide, but that was okay because they sat well on her round face and matched her funny nose. She sniffed and frowned at him, slipping the leaf back into the book on her lap. He recognised that book too – in fact it was still on the TARDIS, she'd forgotten to remove it when she left. "Probably not, what do you care anyway?" her voice had some bite in it, and she glared at him warily.

The Doctor struggled to remind himself that this Clara hadn't met him before. "I'd just hate to hear you'd gotten hurt." He rubbed the back of his head somewhat awkwardly. "You're going to be someone very important someday – I just know it."

She looked at him like he was crazy – he grinned and sat on the other end of the bench. "Trust me" he explained and waved a hand at himself "I mean _look_ at me, I've lived a _long_ time you can tell. I've never met anyone who wasn't important."

She grinned then – okay so jokes about his age where a good thing – and then she looked away briefly, giving him only a side glance before she said "Maybe you could stay here until its light and make sure I don't get hurt then, if you think I'm so important?"

He made a show of get himself comfy – impossible on these wooden benches – and sighed. "Okay then. So why are you out here?"

"Oh no – names first. Mines… Oswald. I'm not giving you my first name – you could be a freak or something."

"I'm the Doctor."

"Is that your title or your name?"

"I'm getting questioned by the girl who won't give me her first name because she thinks I could be a freak? Maybe I think you could be a freak." He retorted.

She laughed, he found it strange how her laugh could sound different – lighter, almost as if that itself was young too.

"How old are you?" he found himself asking.

She raised an eyebrow. "It's rude to ask a girl her age." She said "but I'm nineteen."

"You really shouldn't be out her alone. You're just a kid."

She looked offended, though he was partially sure it was mock offended because her eyes looked like they were laughing. "Just a kid!" she cried "I'll have you know I turn twenty soon enough, and that technically I was legally an adult last year. How old are you anyway, two thousand?"

"Yes"

She laughed thinking he was joking. Well nineteen… she wasn't due to meet him again, at least his last face anyway, for another… what eight years? She'd find out soon enough.

"So miss-nineteen-year-old-and-almost-twenty-but-most-certaintly-an-adul-Oswald, why _are_ you out here?"

Clara sighed, considering him, she looked away as she finally said "It's my mum's death anniversary, and my dad's going on a date… it just feels wrong."

The Doctor shuffled, considering her. "Are you mad at him for moving on?"

Clara heaved a large sigh. "No… I mean it's been six years but… it still feels wrong. I _know_ he loved her, I _know _he won't forget her, but I still _feel _like…"

"Like he's replacing her?"

"Yeah."

"He's not."

"How do you know?"

"I'm two thousand remember? I've lost people before… you move on but you never forget them." He rubbed his neck awkwardly again.

Young Clara considered him silently before she looked up at the sunrise again. She eventually said "I hate his girlfriend though, Linda."

He snorted "I know."

"What?"

He coughed, realising his slip up. "Sorry, I mean it's the whole step mum thing isn't it? She's always an evil witch or something in stories."

She chuckled. "True, Linda could give even snow white's step mother a run for her money."

He hissed comically "Now that means she must be bad – wasn't snow white's step mother the one who tried to kill her with an apple?"

"Yeah."

"Why an apple?"

"What?"

"Why an apple? I hate apples."

"Well you know what they say…" she gave him a sly look.

"What?" he frowned.

"An apple a day keep's the Doctor away…" she chuckled at his dark look.

"Well here's some life advice for you Oswald – try to stay away from apples."

She grinned "Okay – whenever I consider an apple I'll remember the words of wisdom from a stranger I met on a park bench."

He laughed "I am a stranger aren't I?" he mused, knowing by this point in her life she'd met his other face twice, briefly.

The sky was pink and blue now, though clouds still made it obvious it was going to be a gloomy day, and the world around them was beginning to wake up. More cars where filling the road, and people were walking along the streets – occasionally some were looking at the young woman and older man laughing on the park bench. Clara sighed. "Well… I'd better get home before dad gets home from Linda's and finds out I've been gone all night…" she stood.

"You were out here alone all night?" he sounded horrified.

"I do that sometimes, when I'm not feeling okay." She shrugged "there's no one around at night, it's like having the world to yourself."

"Yes there's no one around at night, so no one to help you if you get into trouble." He glared.

"Don't start acting like my dad now, I thought you were cool."

He just crossed his arms over his chest and gave her a stern look. "I suppose I could ask you not to do it again, but I get the strong feeling you won't listen…"

She laughed, but he noticed she was looking at him funny. "What are you doing out here so early then, if you think it's so dangerous?"

He frowned then, a little confused as to why he was out there himself. He couldn't tell her it was because his space ship had dropped him off there to specifically talk to her.

"Because… because I lost my friend recently, we stopped talking, and I miss her and I was tired of thinking about it…"

Clara frowned. "Why don't you just get back in contact is you miss her so much?"

He sighed. "I'm not sure she wants to see me – she thinks I went back to … uh… Scotland, and she's happy with her boyfriend anyway… I should just leave them to do their young couple stuff, I don't belong there anymore…"

"Bollocks"

"Language!"

"Sorry – it's just bollocks. You're _scared_ she's happy without you. Suck it up and go find her – what if she's not happy? What if she misses you? I mean if it was me no amount of having a boyfriend would make me want to lose contact with a friend."

He frowned, considering that. "Okay. Your right – I should get in contact. She's a lot like you anyway."

"I'm _so_ going to take that as a compliment. I should head home now…"

"Where do you live?"

"Just that house up the road, don't worry I'll be safe." She teased.

"Alright. See you later Oswald."

"Why, you local?" she asked as she walked away looking over her shoulder.

"No, but I might see you in the future." He got up off the bench too. "Stay safe."

"I will, you keep safe too."

The Doctor watched her walk up the street, just a little concerned for her welfare, until she reached the house – he watched her climb up the tree at the side of her house and into one of the second story windows. He'd never considered Clara to be such a sneaky teenager. It made him laugh considering the girl he knew always acted innocent. When he entered the TARDIS again he could feel her watching him, waiting. He stroked the metal of the console affectionately. "Why is it that when I need advice about Clara Oswald, I always end up getting it from Clara Oswald?" he asked out loud, remembering when he had first been looking for her and got advice from a child on a swing that had turned out to be her in the first place. He smiled though, feeling like it was the first time in months, and kissed the metal console affectionately before he entered coordinates into the TARDIS. "Thank you old girl, still looking out for me…" he placed a hand on her centre column as she hummed affectionately – he slammed a lever and the engines started, taking him back to his Clara.


	2. Chapter 2

**CHAPTER TWO**

Clara Oswald buried her cold nose into the soft fabric of her blue scarf and sighed as she finally found a bench. She sat down, pulling all her limbs in closer as if it would help her fight off the cold. She knew it wouldn't, but she wasn't ready to go home again just yet either. She breathed out, watching her breath fog up, and turned her head up a fraction to watch the sun rise in the sky. She had this vague feeling of de-ja-vu but she couldn't quite figure out why…

"What did I tell you about walking around on your own in the dark?" a voice behind her made her jump, she was so startled she bit her tongue.

"My stars!" she exclaimed through the pain, turning on the bench to see the last person she had expected leaning on the lamppost behind her. "Are you trying to give me a heart attack?"

The Doctor was looking at her with a startlingly soft expression she'd rarely seen on this new face. "Of course not, I just wish you would remember that walking around in the dark in London in the middle of the night can be dangerous for a young woman."

Her eyes narrowed "I've done it before – it's not that bad."

"I _know_ you've done it before." He gave her a suddenly meaningful look.

Something snapped in Clara's head then – her eyes rounded in realisation "Oh my god, you're the reason I don't eat apples had the time!"

He smirked. A tender moment hung in the air between them for a moment, before it suddenly turned awkward. Clara cleared her throat "What are you doing here?"

"I got advice off an expert on Clara Oswald." He shrugged.

"Who?"

"_You_." he said "I got advice about you, from you. I've been debating for a while now if I should drop by… even just to check if you are alright…" he looked at her as if I could tell she was alright or not just from the looking.

She looked away, staring back up at the sky again. "I'm not okay Doctor."

Snow crunched and a few seconds later the Doctor was on the bench beside her. She meant on the bench, because he hadn't sat down like a normal person, and rather he ended up standing on the wood brushing the settled snow off the back of the wood, he sat on the back of the bench and looked down at her – she was giving his knees, which where eyelevel with her now, a funny look. They sat in complete silence for a little while longer, the snow falling peacefully around them as the sky began to lighten with the first few rays of dawn.

"I didn't find Gallifrey." The Doctor was the first to confess.

"What?" her voice sounded stark in the eerie silence brought with snow.

"I didn't find Gallifrey" he said again, his tone betraying nothing of his feelings.

She sighed, leaning her had against his knee suddenly. The Doctor stiffened when her head touched him – but he could feel her shivering from that brief touch and saw she was wearing only a light coat and blue (a TARDIS blue scarf he'd not seen before, he noticed smugly) scarf. He tried to relax and consciously warm his body up to try give her some warmth, but he didn't touch her. He wasn't sure he knew how.

"Danny didn't come back."

He stiffened, surprised and irritated she hadn't told him that in the first place – but his voice came out surprisingly calm when he asked "But I saw the bracelet?"

"He didn't use it. He sent back a child he'd accidentally killed in a cross fire while he was a soldier." He said it a little defensively, not looking at him, but she'd felt him stiffen under her head.

The Doctor kept very still, considering. He was rather surprised at soldier boy's actions – but he shouldn't have been surprised the man would be self-sacrificing. It was probably the reason Clara loved him. They sat there in the snow for a while longer, neither saying anything as the sun rose in the sky and yet London remained peaceful and sleeping around them.

"Why didn't you tell me he didn't come back?" the Doctor asked suddenly surprising even himself.

Clara lifted her head and frowned at him. "Why did you tell me you found Gallifrey if you didn't?" she challenged.

He half shrugged half nodded accepting her deflection. "Because I thought you had P – er – Danny back. I thought you were happy and wanted to settle into your normal _human_ life."

Clara's frown remained on her face as she nodded. "And I never told you Danny was back – you assumed when you saw the bracelet. I went to the café fully intending to tell you he was dead, because I needed you Doctor… I needed my best friend – but you told me you found Gallifrey, that you found your home, and I changed my mind…"

"Why?" he urged her to tell – he'd started their little honesty session, but he knew he wouldn't get through it if she wasn't completely honest with him too.

Clara looked away from him again, but remained leaning on his leg. "Because I didn't want you hanging around just for me. I mean, I thought you were off to be king or emperor or whatever on your home planet… do you really think I care so little for you that I would hold you back?" she repeated the words he'd said to her, meaning them whole heartedly, after she'd betrayed him to try get Danny back, trying to make him understand.

He understood. The Doctor stood and jumped off the bench, dislodging Clara from his knee, he turned to face her, offering his hands. She considered him briefly, and when her small (and relatively soft, but he wasn't going to dwell on that) hands took his he pulled Clara up to stand beside him. "Best friends" he said "and for a teacher and a time lord we've both been idiots. And – gosh, Clara how long have you been out here, your freezing!" the Doctor noticed now he could see her face in the sunlight that she was paler than he had seen before, and her lips where tinted blue.

"Come on." The Doctor dragged her by the hand to the TARDIS, letting go only when they had crossed the threshold of the blue box, who practically purred at his return and he wondered if that was because Clara was back. Maybe it was because he was actually directing her somewhere, and no longer floating aimlessly.

Clara looked around as the Doctor somehow picked his way in the dark over to the console. She'd never seen the room so dark, lit dully by the red lights overhead, it was a wonder he didn't fall over the piles of books and other miscellaneous objects she could see on the floor as her eyes began to adjust. She dared not move from the spot she was stood in by the door for fear she'd accidentally trod on something important. She was trying to ignore the tickle in her belly, the one she always got when she came on board the TARDIS, that anticipation of an adventure, even if she wasn't going on an adventure now it was still there, just being on the TARDIS herself was an adventure.

The centre column began to move and the engines sounded as the Doctor flicked switches, and the lights overhead began to brighten and illuminated the room some more so Clara could see the true extend of the mess around the console room. She looked around more and spotted plates and cups of half drank tea on practically every surface. There was an old throw blanket on the Doctors leather chair.

She looked to the centre and saw him watching her. "Have you been living in here?" she asked, picking her way past a pile of books almost as tall as her.

He shrugged "I had… I had some things to think over, some repairs to make, I didn't have time to keep running back and forth from all the rooms."

Clara thought about pointing out the TARDIS often moved the room someone needed closer to the console room for ease of access, but of course the Doctor knew that so she decided not to comment. The TARDIS landed and the Doctor waved for her to follow him out of the door.

They stepped out into her apartment and the Doctor stopped suddenly, looking around him at the practically bare room. "Clara have you been robbed, where are all your things?" he asked a little starkly.

She moved around him, taking off her coat and scarf as she made her way to the kitchen, retrieving two mugs from a box on the table top and beginning to make tea. "I haven't been robbed Doctor- but my dad and gran wanted me to move closer to them so I wouldn't be so 'lonely'. All my things are in the boxes."

He nodded once, seeming to understand. "Oh. So you are moving?"

"Yeah… well, probably just move to my dad's or my grans for a while until I find a new place. But my lease here was coming to an end and I didn't want to renew it."

He watched her make tea in silence. Leaning on the table the Doctor surveyed his old companion, taking notice of things she probably wouldn't have. The way she kept looking over her shoulder, her eyes still wide as she made darting glances, as if making sure he was still there. He wondered if she knew she was blinking more than the usual six to eight blinks, if she knew her pulse was flicking faster than it should have been – he could see the rapid movement on her neck when her hair fell away. He noticed her shoulders where slumped when she turned around, handing him the cup of tea she had made.

"You know… you don't have to move in with your dad of gran…" the words fell from his mouth without him actually thinking about them. Maybe he should get check out for that – a run-away mouth syndrome.

She frowned at him over her mug.

Feeling more than awkward the Doctor shrugged and ducked his head away from her. "Well… if you wanted… I mean the TARDIS has room for you… if you wanted to come back that is."

Silence hung between them.

"Okay."

His head snapped up to look at her. "Okay?"

She smiled "Yeah. Okay. I'll come back… if you want me?"

"Of course!" the Doctor realised he sounded too enthusiastic there when her eyebrows shot up in surprised. "I mean… I wouldn't have offered if I didn't want you back."

She snickered.

"I did expect some protest" he defended himself. "What about your job, your family?"

"Are you trying to get me _out _of coming with you now, Doctor?" she smirked.

"No, _no_!" he looked flustered and Clara giggled a bit.

When she was no longer laughing she shrugged "Doctor, I don't exactly have much going for me at the moment. It'll take a bit of explaining with my family I guess – and I'm between jobs at the moment."

He watched as she put her mug down and turned to him with a stern glare. "_But_ if this is going to work now, I think we need some ground rules."

The Doctor nodded, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. "Agreed. What did you have in mind?"

"First off?" she said "No more lies. We're completely honest with each other."

He nodded, but didn't look too happy about it. "Alright. But if I tell you to do something you _do it_. Don't stand around arguing Clara because usually I'm telling you to keep you safe."

She hesitated before nodding. "Okay – but no self-sacrificing please."

"That's a two way street, impossible girl."

She gave a nod. "Okay…" she smiled and offered him her hand. "But we're a team Doctor, yeah?"

He looked at her hand. Before they had rarely held hands, unless running for their lives of course, but now he had a feeling there would be a lot more of the hand holding… he took her hand and saw a glint in her eyes. "Oh no, Clara, not the-" his words where cut off when she pulled him towards her with more strength than the five foot three girl should have possessed and wrapped her arms around him, squeezing.

He had a feeling there would be a lot more of the hugging in the future too – not that he'd ever had a say in it.


	3. Chapter 3

**CHAPTER THREE**

Clara sat back on her bed in the TARDIS leaning on the pile of little decorative cushions on her bed that hadn't been there before she left the ship. Nothing else in her room appeared to have changed, so she made the assumption that the Doctor hadn't gotten around to deleting it, despite being apart for almost half a year. The very thought made her grin, because that and his slightly more open attitude spoke volumes about how much he'd missed her – even if he never came out an actually said it.

She was holding her phone up to her ear, her dad was rambling after she told him she wasn't going to be moving in with him or her gran as planned that weekend. "- where _are_ you going?" he finally asked, probably before he ran out of breath.

"I – well –" _I'm orbiting a planet whose name I can't pronounce in a different galaxy to yours and it's a good job my best friend, whose an alien by the way, updated my phone for me because my bill would be HUGE by now..._ "I'm staying with a friend for a while – we're going travelling."

"What friend?" her dad asked, his tone was incredulous like he expected her to have no friends. A real boost for her ego she thought. "It's not that Janine is it Clara because I don't trust her…"

"Dad I haven't spoken to Janine since school…"

"Well good, she wasn't a very nice girl. Who is this friend you're travelling with then? And where are you going? Do you even have the money for travelling?"

"You – uh – you haven't met this friend." _Technically you have, but he had a different face and he was completely naked so you probably didn't notice his face much anyway, I know gran didn't… _"But we've been friends for a long time. We're going to- uh, dad hang on a second." The Doctor had suddenly appeared in her doorway, he wouldn't come into her room (he never did) but he had started to try mime something to her from the door, and he wasn't very good at it. "What?" she hissed at him, covering the phones receiver.

"Thought of a place to go – you said somewhere colourful right? Well there's a planet that has the most fantastic market and…"

"That's great Doctor, but couldn't it have waited until after I get off the phone with my dad?" she raised an amused eyebrow at him.

He just rolled his eyes in response and walked away, but she was pretty sure he wasn't actually irritated. She put the phone back to her ear. "Sorry dad, anyway, we're going everywhere. Haven't you ever wanted to see the world?"

"Well yes, but that just brings up my other question, do you even have the money for this trip?" he sounded anxious.

"Of course dad" Clara thought on the spot "I've got that savings account you had me open when I was a teen. I haven't touched it in years and I've been putting part of my pay check in there every month." She wasn't lying, which suddenly made her curious how much money she actually had. She had been able to afford a new hair dryer when hers crapped out last month after all, she'd just forgotten.

"Oh. Well." Her dad replied "Didn't I tell you that would be useful – oh hold on sweetie, your gran wants to talk to you."

Clara heard some shuffling as the phone was given to her gran – she then heard the old lady telling her dad to go get her something from the kitchen. When she was finally on the phone the older woman asked "Okay love, dish the gossip – who's the new man?"

"What?" Clara laughed, bewildered.

"Clara I'm old but not stupid. Nothings gotten you out of that apartment of yours in weeks and suddenly your taking off to see the world – there has to be a man behind this, I don't believe it's just a friend. Call it an old woman's intuition. Plus, your father did the same with when your mother passed on – god bless her."

Clara bit her lip. "Don't tell dad – he'll have a cow."

"So it is a man" her gran sounded smug.

"Yes but not like that. We're just friends."

"Honey that's what the dish said before it ran away with the spoon."

"Gran" Clara rolled her eyes despite the other woman not being able to see her. "Honestly, we're just friends.

"Well I'm not one to judge…" Clara heard her father come back into the room on the other end of the phone. "Well, I hope you stay safe. Have fun sweetie, love you!" Clara heard the phone being taken back by her father.

"Dad I have to go- "the Doctor was back at her door miming again. Clara threw one of the throw pillows at him. "I love you, and I'll call you soon."

"Alright Clara, I love you too – stay safe and just ask if you need anything."

"I will, bye."

"Bye."

She hung up the phone and debated throwing that at the Doctor too.

"Are you finished?" he asked "Gosh I'd forgotten humans could talk for so long – you're exhausting honestly."

"Hark says the man who never shuts up." Clara rolled her eyes as she got up off the bed and began to walk with him back to the console room. "Do I need anything in particular for this market trip?"

"You might want to change into something that will keep you cool. There's three suns out there. Sunblock might be a good idea." He said it like an afterthought, frowning as they turned a corner and ended up in the wardrobe.

Clara was less phased by the TARDIS rearranging around them and didn't miss a step as she walked towards the part of the wardrobe that had female clothes. She looked at some of the outfits and grinned – the TARDIS did have impeccable fashion sense. "Did you say _three_ suns?"

"Oh yes. But one of them is purple."

"Sounds pretty" Clara selected a skirt from the rack and disappeared into the wardrobe. When she reappeared she was wearing a simple black pleated skirt and white spaghetti strap top with small heeled shoes. She'd tied up her hair too, and was rubbing some sunblock into her arms and shoulders. She offered the sunblock to the Doctor. "Here."

"I don't need it."

"You said that last time we went to a planet with more than two sun's and you got sunburn and complained for two days." She reminded him sternly.

The Doctor glared at her. "Yes but unlike you I shan't be revealing so much…skin."

"There's still your face" while he'd been arguing Clara had squirted some of the bluish sunblock onto her fingers – she pounced on him now, swiping the thick cream onto his nose. Startled the Doctor jumped away like she'd burned him. "There, that wasn't so bad. And you may as well rub it in now it's on your face, eh?" she walked away smugly from him as he begrudgingly rubbed the sunblock into his face.

The Doctor quickly caught up with her in the control room – muttering something that sounded a _lot _like 'control freak' but she chose to ignore that – and they left the TARDIS together.

In all honesty Clara should have realised when the Doctor said there was three suns that this planet would be incredibly hot and almost desert like. Still, there was nothing more annoying than having the slight breeze pick up sand and stick it to her bare legs, slightly oily from the sunblock. The market itself however was wonderful – though the Doctor never let her out of his sight, which was probably a good thing – though she felt a little weird about the Doctor buying her things, of course it was because she had no money, but she didn't even like letting a date pick up the tab for dinner – her dad always said it was an independence thing, but she just hated letting people pay for her.

At about midday (or at least she thought it was midday, it was hard to tell with three suns) she convinced the Doctor it was time to eat. He let her order any food she wished – only after he'd pointed out anything on the menu that was not safe for human consumption – but only ordered a drink for himself. Something that looked suspiciously like a strawberry milkshake – though it probably wasn't. She herself ended up with something that looked like chilli, again she was sure it wasn't, especially when she took a bite of it and instead of spicy it tasted sweet. The Doctor watched her with a blank expression, though on the inside he was amused that she barely hesitated to try alien food. When she had first began traveling with him she hadn't dared try alien meals – then again the first one she saw did have tentacles, though he should point out that many human meals also contain tentacles. He was so busy watching her, he hadn't noticed what she had.

Clara wasn't totally sure, but she was pretty sure the alien standing in the corner was male. Either way, she was sure it had been following them for a good while now. It was balled on its head, and had rough grey paper like skin and only three fingers on its hands. More amazingly, Clara thought, this creature was wearing what looked to her like black leather in the middle of the day on a planet with three suns. She swore it was watching her, she kept seeing its eyes wandering up and down – if it had been a human male she'd have said it was checking her out.

"What's wrong?" the Doctor saw her frowning.

"Nothin'" she clicked her tongue, looking away from the alien in the corner. "Just thought that guy over there was following us… I swore he was watching me. Probably just not seen a human before, right?"

The Doctor looked over his shoulder at the alien she nodded too. When he turned around again his expression was blank, though his mouth was pulled into a grim line. "Probably. Just curious. Still – I think maybe we should hurry and get back to the TARDIS, don't you?"

"Yeah" Clara agreed – knowing them, it wasn't just a harmless curious alien – so she hurried to finish her meal (which seemed to please the cook no end) and allowed the Doctor to grab her wrist and drag her out of the room. Outside it was clear something had happened that they had missed – the market stalls where all locked up, and Clara realised the only thing that separated this scene with the one of a western movie was a stray tumbleweed. "Doctor?" she asked.

"Come on Clara – I think I might have made a mistake…" he started to drag her through the market stalls, his grip tight. They saw no one as they tried to find their way back to the blue box, and Clara tried to keep at bay any impulses to run – she'd only do that when the Doctor told her, she never knew it that would antagonize something to chase her or not.

Something struck Clara in the leg – just a tiny pin prick, but it practically deadened her leg and she fell to the floor, her head beginning to feel fuzzy and her eyelids heavy. Looking up she saw the Doctor turn to her, and barely registered the sight of him also getting struck by something – it looked like a purple dart – in the side of his neck before her eyelids became too heavy to keep open.

When Clara woke she did so slowly. Her body seemed to wake up before her brain somehow, if that was even possible, and she became aware of several things – of a heavy cold weight on her ankle, and the fact she was lying on a cold hard ground (which was almost a relief with how hot it had been outside) before her ears seemed to wake up and she became aware of discussion and the sound of movement around her. She sincerely hopes one of those voices was the Doctor.

"Doctor?" she mumbled through dry lips as she tried to sit up. Her head span and her mouth was horribly dry – she felt like she'd eaten sand!

"Shh- she's waking up!" this voice was soft and had a particular accent – she'd swear it was American. Defiantly not the Doctor.

"Clara?" _ah, that was the Doctor_. She recognised the gruffness and the roll of the 'r' in her name. She felt hands on her back and shoulder as he helped her to sit up, and she tried to open her eyes to see him but it was too dark for her to make much out before her eyes adjusted. She did feel when a metal cup was held to her lips however. "Here, drink" the Doctor ordered her "Your dehydrated."

Clara gulped the water until she felt half the cup was gone – but then she thought to stop, and save whatever was left for the Doctor. She'd been looking around while he practically forced her to drink, and could clearly see they were locked in a cell with their ankles bound in iron chains. She'd be mightily surprised if there was more water in the cell for the Doctor too. He didn't seem to understand she wanted to stop drinking through, not until she insistently pushed the cup away from her lips – even in the dark she saw him frown. "Where are we?" she asked.

"Cells." The other voice answered unhelpfully.

"Well I'd gathered that much." She rolled her eyes, sitting up fully now as the Doctor dropped the supporting hand at her back. "What did we do, Doctor?"

"Why did we have to do anything?" he sounded offended.

"Because we're locked in a cell and are bound with chains – unless you're into some kinky stuff you didn't warn me about first?"

The other voice began laughing merrily now, clearly amused. "I like her" it said "She's got spunk!"

"Jack if you don't shut your trap I'm going to shut it for you." The Doctor snapped.

"Ooooh I like the implications of that." The other voice switched from laughter to a sensual flirtatiousness easily.

"So why are we in a cell?" Clara brought their attention back to the issue at hand.

"I may have made a mistake, as I said before we were so rudely knocked out."

"Well I doubt we'd have followed them if they asked us nicely if they could lock us up." Clara said "What kind of mistake did you make? Wear the wrong colours and offend someone?"

"That happened once Clara." the Doctor grumped and even in the gloom she saw him cross his arms in the dark. She shuffled closer to him in the dark, nudging him with an elbow until he replied "We may have gone to the wrong planet…"

"The wrong planet?" she sounded incredulous.

"Well in my defence these are _twin_ planets and are _both _market planets. How was I supposed to know this one was the black market trade?"

Clara nodded then. "Yeah alright, I give you that – easy mistake."

"Really?" he sounded surprised.

"Well yeah. Why?"

"I thought you'd be… angrier."

Clara just shrugged – maybe being apart from the Doctor for so long made it easier to accept the genuine accidental danger he got them in, even while she was locked in a cell.

The other voice cleared its throat again, and Clara looked around feeling someone sit beside her. "Well since no one is going to introduce me…" there was a pause and Clara thought maybe he was waiting to see if the Doctor was going to introduce him, but the Timelord said nothing. "I'm Jack, Captain Jack Harkness." Clara's hand was picked up from the floor and kissed by soft lips that trailed across her skin longer than was necessary.

"I know." Clara replied, taking her hand back carefully. She'd figured it out with the accent and when the Doctor had called him 'Jack'.

"You _know_?" Jack sounded pleasantly surprised. "Have we met, I mean, I know I've met a few pretty faces in my time but I don't normally forget a face –"

Both Clara and the Doctor snorted, knowing 'a few pretty faces' was an understatement. Too Jack, everyone and everything was a pretty face. "You've not met _me_. But you've probably met someone like me – an echo of me. It's a long story."

"We have time." She felt Jack wave his arms in the dark as if indicating where they were.

"Shouldn't you be thinking of a way to get us out of here?"

"We have a plan" Jack said, his voice suddenly hard, and Clara felt the Doctor stiffen beside her.

"We do?"

"We don't." the Doctor's voice was cutting and hard.

"_Yes_ we do" Jack sounded insistent "But Mr Timelord over there isn't happy with it so he chucks the entire idea out the window…"

"What is i-"Clara got halfway through asking before the Doctor stood abruptly.

"You two have your little chat" he growled "Leave the escaping to someone smart enough to come up with a plan that isn't utterly ridiculous!"

Jack snorted and Clara felt a little uncomfortable as she could just see the outline of the Doctor in the dark and hear the chains around his ankles as she walked around the room. By the barred window there was enough light that she could make out the Doctor's missing jacket – so apparently a simple few tricks with the sonic wasn't going to get them out of this one. She sighed and turned to Jack and hissed "Whatever idea you came up with its really rattled him – I don't think you should mention it again."

Jack snorted again. "This regeneration is a bit touchy isn't he? If I was in his shoes I wouldn't be complaining even half as much…"

"Yeah well, he's very good at complaining so zip it." Clara snapped a little, feeling very defensive of her Doctor. Maybe it was because Jack sounded just as she had when he first regenerated, irritated with this new face and personality, unable to see that it's still the Doctor…

There was a tense few moments of silence, not even disturbed by the Doctors chains as he tried to walk around the room. Eventually however Jack spoke again.

"So what's this about echoes of you?"

"Well basically-"Clara explained in detail about her echoes after jumping into the Doctor's time stream. Jack was very interested – Clara wasn't surprised, Jack died and came back thousands of times by this point in his life, the idea of someone who might relate to him was probably something he'd not come across too often. The difference was that he was always Jack, she had to explain to him that when she could remember all her echo memories – it had taken some time, and even now she was remembering new things, they came to her in dreams or when she least expected it – they were her, but at the same time the memories where from a different person. A complicated feeling indeed. Sometime while she was speaking the Doctor had come and sat back down beside her, but she waited until she'd finished telling her story to Jack before she asked him anything. "Find an escape route?"

She got the distinct feeling in the dark that the Doctor was glaring at her. "No" he replied tersely.

"So we're going with my idea?" Jack asked.

Clara felt the glare switch from her to Jack. "Even if I was to go with your plan it would only protect Clara and myself from being sold into slavery – I highly doubt it would save us from death considering they know I am a timelord, and it certainly wouldn't save you from either fate Jack."

"Ah see that's the beauty of this plan." Jack sounded like the cat who had the canary. "They can't kill you – ironically they have no qualms about slavery, but their laws on this are absolute and even the most criminal of criminals doesn't break that rule – they can however release you into the dessert and hope that kills you, but I assume you have a clever way to find the TARDIS. As for me –"there was a lot of chain jangling and a soft thud as Jack removed his boot "I can wiggle my feet out of these pretty easily. Small feet and all."

Clara giggled and felt the two men look at her. "Well" she said in her defence "you know what they say about small feet…"

Jack snorted "I assure you that does not apply to me – but feel free to check anytime."

"I have no idea what they say about small feet. Small shoes? The inability to balance properly?"

Clara just giggled, shaking her head at the Doctors cluelessness – though she was pretty sure half the time he wasn't nearly as clueless as he liked to pretend he was. On the very few times she'd seen this version on his intoxicated – because his other face couldn't stand the taste of anything alcoholic, while this one rather enjoyed whisky – he'd almost been flirty. Almost.

Lights outside their cell suddenly flickered to life as the sound of an old metal door scraping open made them all cringe. Heavy footsteps sounded far away, but Clara felt her heart thudding already – as if every footstep was an echo of her own heartbeat.

"Doctor…" Jack hissed.

"No just… just wait…" the Doctor hissed back, but he sounded uncertain and now that there was some light Clara could see he was looking around almost desperately a slightly panicked expression on his face.

"Doctor!" Jack sounded bolder now, and he got the Timelord's attention on his face. Jack glanced down at Clara briefly before he met the Doctors gaze again. "If you don't do it, I will."

"What are you –"Clara tried to ask, but the Doctor nodded sharply, a grim expression on his face before he looked at Clara and his hands settled onto her shoulders as he pulled her towards him further.

"Clara, I'm sorry…" he said, before he lunged forward suddenly.


	4. Chapter 4

**CHAPTER FOUR**

Clara yelled loudly as pain erupted in her neck where it joined her shoulder- and yet the pain seemed to subside quite quickly as something wet covered it. The Doctor pulled away, wiping at his mouth grimly as Clara strained to bend to see what he had done to her. "What the bloody hell was that for?" she asked, her voice still stark – over it she could hear the boot steps of someone getting quicker, probably started by her yell, but she didn't care anymore about that – "Did you just bite-mph!" something wet and warm was slipped into her mouth while she was speaking, and on instinct Clara swallowed before she could figure out what it was he'd put in her mouth. She didn't need to figure it out though – whatever it was coppery in taste, and the Doctor was trying to hide from her a fresh wound on his arm.

"What the hell are you doing!" she cried, angry now – but the Doctor wasn't looking at her. In fact he was pointedly looking away from her.

Jack turned Clara by the shoulders to face him, but he was looking at the Doctor over her head. "God you weren't kidding when you said she'd be pissed off…" Jack looked down at Clara and shook her just slightly "Look Clara, he's saving your life that's what he's doing okay? Just trust us and try keep calm…"

But Clara could barely focus on what Jack was saying. Her head was fuzzy for some reason now, the same way it would be if she had just woken up. and it was spreading to the rest of her body – so by the time the alien she'd spotted watching her in the café had stomped into the room and yanked her up to stand by her elbow she was barely certain of anything going on around her. She was, however, certain of feeling the thick three fingers grip of the alien on her now injured shoulder, and she heard it roar in frustration before it began to start barking orders at its soldiers.

When the alien let her go, Clara's knees buckled and she felt arms grip her and pull her up right. She shook her head a few times, but everything felt and sounded far away – though she could hear the Doctor yelling, and Jack and the sound of guns before suddenly a hand clamped over her eyes and her body felt electrified…

… And then she knew she was outside. She fell onto the ground on her back as soon as the person holding her let go and landed on soft sand, sliding down the sand dune slightly. She felt the wind on her skin and the suns raining down on her and felt like she could lie there forever.

'_Clara'_ a voice in her head – her inner voice maybe? – And everything seemed to snap back to reality for her. She snapped her eyes open and sat up, looking around until she found Jack and the Doctor. The Doctor was kneeling in the sand trying to beat sand out of his jacket before he put it on, he was watching her with narrowed eyes but looked away quickly. Jack was lying down too, with a big cheesy grin on his face.

Clara stood, and it took some balancing but she eventually managed to get back to the side of the Doctor – and she noticed he was still not looking at her, a grim expression on his face.

"So does anyone want to tell me what just happened because I think I zoned out a little?" she asked with confusion.

Jack was standing too, he looked at her briefly with a slightly concerned expression before he looked away again. "I think the Doctor should be the one to do that…" he said, but the Timelord snorted and walked away from them, fiddling with the sonic screwdriver. Jack sighed "Make sure you get him to explain, you're going to need answers and it's for his own good."

"Can't you-?"

"It's not my place…"

"But you practically made him do it!" she protested.

Jack sighed again, looking over his shoulder to the Doctor who was now pointing the sonic up to the sky and looking bored, before looking back at Clara. he began to rifle in the pockets of the long trench coat he was wearing and pulled out a pen and paper (which Clara found odd because she'd thought with it being so far in the future and on another planet something would have replaced simple pen and paper by now, but apparently not) and wrote down a date, time and phone number and gave it to her. "This is todays date and time so you know around when to call me. Once he's explain a bit, give me a ring and I'll tell you the truth – because I didn't _make _him _do_ anything."

The wind whipped up and a familiar groaning filled the air – Clara turned to see the TARDIS materialising just a few paces away from them all. The Doctor looked rather smug. "Did you just remote call her or something?" she called to him as she approached.

He looked startled and quite angry still, and when he replied it was with a biting tone. "No, beacon. But same thing."

"Why couldn't you have done that when the HADS displaced her to the other side of earth?"

He looked startled, then smug again. "Because that face was not so nearly as smart as this face and I decided to add a few modifications to my sonic and the TARDIS."

"Well my friends…" Jack approached, grabbed Clara by the waist and looked like he was going to kiss her but stopped suddenly. He looked up at the Doctor "Sorry…" he released Clara and took her hand and kissed that instead – and shook the Doctors hand. Clara wasn't stupid enough not to realise the Doctor looked angry again for whatever reason.

Jack stepped away from them and bowed with a dramatic flourish "I bid you Adieu" and he took out a watch like device that looked an awful lot like an –

"Is that a vortex manipulator?" Clara asked.

"Nah" Jack grinned "Similar, but kind of updated. Anyway, I better get back to my team so we can start bringing down the slave traders, now that I can trace them. Thanks for the help Doc."

"Wish I could say the same Jack" the Doctor replied bluntly.

Jack rolled his eyes at that response, pressed the big red button on his watch and winked before he was sucked away in the blink of an eye. Clara turned to the Doctor – but he was gone, already inside the TARDIS. She followed, slipping down the dune slightly.

"Doctor" Clara crossed the TARDIS threshold, the door shutting behind her. She wasn't sure if she was going to tell him off for being rude, or if she was going to ask about what had happened during their escape, but both things fell out of her mind when she saw the Doctors stormy expression as his face snapped up to meet hers from the centre console.

"What?" he snapped.

"Uh-"she hesitated "Are you okay?"

"Yes" he growled looking away – she thought about saying how she knew he was lying, but thought better of it. Obviously something was wrong, but now didn't appear to be the time to mention it and she was far too tired to fight. As if reading her thoughts the Doctor looked at her again, his expression softening. "Clara," his voice was gentler too, but still angry "you're tired and dehydrated – go get some water and go to bed. I'm setting her to drift until I know Jack's team has sorted this little slave operation so you'll be bored otherwise."

Clara nodded – she wasn't going to argue, but she was going to shower to get rid of the sand that had stuck to her exposed skin from the sunblock before she got into bed. "Okay, but wake me up if something happens… and by the way you missed a spot with the sunblock, you've got sunburn on your face right here." She moved her hand over her face to indicate his burned spot, noticed his expression turn to irritated again, and decided to leave the console room right then before he could snap at her.

When she got to her bedroom she found some towels and pyjama's waiting on her bed – she thanked the TARDIS mentally, though she was a little surprised that instead of the usual white full length satin pyjamas, old blue had given her a simple set of cotton shorts and a shirt. Either way it mattered little to Clara, she just wanted to sleep. She disappeared with the clothes and towels into the bathroom and turned on the shower, waiting for it to warm, she stripped of – and caught sight of herself in the mirror, and was shocked by what she saw on her neck.

Clara wasn't sure what it was she had expected – but it wasn't this. She'd understood that the Doctor had bitten her, that much was easy to figure out, so she had expected from the pain and slightly wet feeling to see a bloody wound (for which she'd make him explain and apologise for) but that wasn't what she saw. What she saw on her neck was of course a bite wound, teeth marks clearly imprinted on her skin, but the wound wasn't bloody. In fact it was barely a wound. It had healed, the skin knitted together completely again, and looking like it could be a year old scar – the only indicator that it was fresh was the fact it had a sizable bruise around it. Clara poked at it a bit and winced – it sure hurt like it was fresh too.

She got under the spray of water, feeling it soothe her despite her wandering thoughts. What the hell had the Doctor done to her? she could see why Jack said she'd need answers – like how long was this bite mark going to stay because that was going to cause questions, and she wasn't about to start wearing turtle neck sweaters all the time! Still to make a wound like that – what did he have, venomous teeth? Then again anything was possible, but from her echo memories as a time lady Clara was pretty certain that Timelord's didn't have venom.

And what had he shoved in her mouth – because she was sure that was what had caused her to go all fuzzy. Had he drugged her briefly? That wouldn't make sense – their escape would have been far easier with her able to function properly. Clara began to wash her hair and remembered seeing the fresh wound on the Doctors arm just after he'd shoved something slimy in her mouth. She suddenly felt a little sick… had he…? _No_… what would be the point of making her eat something from his bloody wound? But Clara remembered the taste – coppery, like blood. She began to feel sick again and turned under the water spray so she could fill her mouth with water repeatedly, hoping to wash away the taste. It didn't work – the taste was in her memory.

Twenty minutes later Clara was out of the shower – she checked the mirror hoping the bite was gone, but it wasn't, and considered running to the console room and demanding answers but didn't. There was no point, not while the Doctor was angry or upset – that would be like trying to get blood from a stone. Irritated, curious and exhausted Clara pulled on the pyjamas offered by the TARDIS and crawled under the blankets as the TARDIS dimmed the lights of her room. "Thanks you old cow" she yawned with a smile "I feel like I could sleep for days…"

When Clara woke she felt refreshed, like she _had _slept for a week. She got a little paranoid then and checked her phone, but she had indeed only been asleep for a few hours. Maybe it was because so much had happened In a few hours – running away with the Doctor and nearly getting sold as a slave in some alien black market – or maybe it was because it had been so long since she'd had a full twelve hours sleep. Either way she felt wonderful.

She got up with the intent to get some answers from the Doctor, whether he was in an answering mood or not, so after she dressed she made her way to the control room – but the Doctor wasn't there. Frowning Clara ran back down the corridor, finding the library and the kitchen but he wasn't there either. She figured that this must mean he was 'not sleeping' in the bedroom she'd only seen the door of once. She figured he'd probably asked the TARDIS to redirect her too, because when she tried to find that room again she ended up in the console room.

Hands on her hips Clara frowned deeper. "I won't say he is avoiding me… but it's a good possibly." She said out loud – the TARDIS beeped in response, but she had no idea if that was the machine agreeing with her or not. She looked around the room, which was still littered with dishes and books. "Well, I can at least tidy you up a bit until he shows up – I mean he's bound to show up in the console room eventually…" she began to gather the dirty dishes – trying not to cringe when she found things growing in the cups. She vaguely hoped it was some kind of science experiment with mould, and that he just wasn't disinclined to wash his own dishes.

When Cara had took the dishes to the kitchen and placed them in the dishwasher that so conveniently appeared the control room already looked much better. She wasn't too annoyed about having to re-shelve the books and she hoped that the Doctor didn't notice her inner OCD had made her order the books alphabetically – which she thought was far more convenient than when he would just shelve things with no order at all. The man didn't even place series of books together!

Apparently the TARDIS was happy someone was finally cleaning her, because when it came to picking up all the alien technological devices Clara had no idea what to do and the TARDIS seemed to happily provide a set of cabinets for her to place things in. She was pushing the chalkboards to a more out of the way spot when she noticed something, written in the Doctors handwriting, her name. She flipped the board over she could see what it was he had actually written.

She gazed on the board, full of writing and arrows and a diagram here and there – all of it was (she realised after a few minutes of reading) theories about why she had left him. At the end, circled and underlined twice with a question mark that simply said 'Me?'

She frowned at that. Did he really think that he was the reason she'd left?

Clara added that to the list of things she wanted to talk to the Doctor about and flipped the board back over to its blank side before pushing it to the side with the other two chalk boards, neatly out of the way. She turned back around and nearly walked into the Doctor.

"Oh my stars!" she took two steps away and held a hand over her heart. "Don't do that, you nearly scared the hell out of me!"

"Sorry" he muttered watching her and not looking the least bit sorry. "Where you looking at my board?"

"Yes" she didn't even think about lying.

"Why?" he didn't seem angry, just confused.

"Because I saw my name – I was curious."

"Curiosity killed the cat Clara…" he warned her, moving around until the console was between them and pressing some buttons.

"But satisfaction brought it back." She crossed her arms over her chest and finished the saying for him, seeing him stop what he was doing to meet her eye over the console.

"And where you satisfied with what you found?"

"No." she replied, trying to walk towards him around the console but he moved away swiftly. "Did you really think you where the problem that caused us to argue?"

He shrugged nonchalantly – but Clara wasn't buying his aloofness. "Wasn't I?" he asked "we hardly argued before I changed my face – clearly something changed, and I went with the most obvious conclusion."

She snorted "We argued plenty when you had your other face Doctor – but you never argued back. Your other face was happier to run around like a hyperactive toddler, I felt like your mother! There is another reason we argued so much, and your new personality is not it."

He cocked his head to the side, like a curious dog. "Interesting" was his only comment however.

"Interesting?"

"Yes. I had stopped considering other reasons for a problem, now however I am more curious if there is another problem."

"What did you just say about the curious cat?"

He snorted, clearly amused. He looked around suddenly as if realising something – "Did you clean in here?"

"Yeah, I got bored waiting for you though I think the TARDIS appreciated it."

"Why where you waiting for me? Usually you're in the library and I can't find you anyway…"

Clara moved her hair back from the bite mark on her neck and saw his face darken immediately "How about for some answers on this – like why did it heal so quick? Do you have some kind of timelord venom I don't know about?"

He snorted and looked away again. "No. no venom. Just drop it Clara – you don't need to know."

"I beg to differ considering its me who's got a fresh bite mark that looks like a ten year old scar!"

"Clara-"his voice sounded with warning.

"I'm not going to drop it so don't give me that tone…"

"It's nothing. Just leave it. Pick a place to go – there's a planet that has upside down waterfalls, now that's a sight to see, or – oh – you'll like this one, a planet is holding a cooking festival – you could probably find a decent soufflé recipe…"

"My mother's soufflé recipe is fine!"

"Yes but your interpretation of it isn't the best."

"- Wait – stop trying to get off topic, you still have to tell me about this bite. Why did you do it? Why's it healed to fast? Why did I feel all fuzzy after you bit me?"

The Doctor looked like he was crossing from anger to panic as she advanced on him faster and he tried to keep the console between then. He wished for something, anything to distract the little human pressing him for answers, when suddenly the TARDIS trembled – and they both froze.

"What was that?" Clara looked around warily.

The Doctor didn't need to say he didn't know – it was plain on his face as he looked at her, biting his lip. They waited for a second, rooted to the floor waiting to see if anything else would happen. When it didn't the Doctor said "Well, doesn't look like it was anything too ba-" the TARDIS shook again violently, seemingly to spin and sending the books from the shelves littering across the floor. The Doctor caught hold of the railing but Clara wasn't so fast and went skidding across the room.

Around them the TARDIS groaned, a beep echoing from the console as lights flashed horribly. Clara wasn't sure but she could swear the time machine sounded panicked. She felt dread build up in her like a lead ball, especially when the tell-tale sound of a machine powering down echoed in the console room and the lights began to dim and the noises stopped – but the TARDIS kept spinning. Clara tried to grab hold of the railing as she passed, but her grip slipped and she was sent thudding against the TARDIS doors, smacking her head violently. She thought for a second that she was safe, if she could stay in that corner she would be fine, but she'd hit the door with some force and the TARDIS appeared to be powered down – she felt the door give under her weight and managed to throw herself towards the railing and grab it before they opened and revealed deep space – a large sun orbiting outside threw warmth into the TARDIS, but the crackling of flames was filling Clara's ears and she couldn't enjoy the warmth with the fear she felt.

"Clara!" the Doctor sounded terrified – a tone she rarely heard from him. It made her look up and find him pulling himself along the railing towards her. He looked relived when he saw she'd gotten a tight grip on the railing – he'd obviously feared she'd been sucked outside into deep space. She was surprised she hadn't been sucked out honestly, but the TARDIS shields must have still been in place even if her lights where out.

"Clara!" the Doctor called to get her attention again. "Clara try pull yourself along, come on now Impossible girl…" he encouraged.

She listened to him, but at first her body was too frozen to move. Was he crazy? If she loosened her grip she could slide right out!

"Clara…" he murmured it this time, almost too quiet for her to hear, and met her gaze. "I know you afraid and I know your doubting my sanity right now but I promise you'll be fine… when you get close enough I'll grab you okay?"

His expression looked so honest. Clara nodded, loosening her grip she began to pull herself up the railing – she paused only once when the TARDIS tremored again – and she could hear the Doctor muttering encouragement the entire time. She had looked away while she was climbing, so was quite startled when the Doctor suddenly grabbed her arms, pulling her the rest of the way with that peculiar time lord strength that always shocked her, he swung them both to the left until they fell from the control room platform into the space below. Even down there was a mess – the desk he normally kept in a somewhat neat state was in complete disarray and on the wrong side of the room. They both landed on their sides, but the Doctor kept his grip on Clara even as he pulled them into a sitting position, he held the woman as she trembled with either fear or adrenaline though he knew it was probably both. For her part Clara settled into his embrace quite readily – she had missed this, the way he would hold her and tell her it was alright, though he had never done so like this before. He practically held her in his lap as she rested her head on his shoulder and clutched at his white shirt. "It's okay Clara, I've got you love…" he muttered into her hair.

When she was sure her voice would not shake Clara asked "Doctor, what's going on with the TARDIS?"

At some point he had started stroking her hair, but as she moved slightly to peer up at his face he didn't look like he was conscious of his soothing actions. His expression was set in a worried frown as he stared across the room. "It's okay Clara – I thought we would be far enough away not to be affected by a solar flare from the sun outside. It's three times the size of your sun did you know that? The TARDIS will be fine, she's just having a bit of an rest after absorbing all that power, when she's up and running again I won't need to charge her up again for a long while."

"Oh good" she sounded relived. "I didn't like the idea of her being broken or something."

"I could fix her if she was."

"Sure." She didn't actually mean to sound so disbelieving, and he finally looked at her for her tone of voice.

"I could!" he protested with a frown.

"Didn't you throw the manual into a supernova?"

He scoffed "What's your point?"

Clara laughed "Nothing – I'm sure she prefers your way of fixing anyway. But maybe after she is up and running again we should take a trip somewhere I don't risk falling into deep space? I suddenly have a longing for solid ground."

"Mm" the Doctor sounded like he agreed "Perhaps a trip to our lovely friends in Victorian London?"

"Yeah, that would be nice. I missed them when we-"_when we stopped travelling._ She chose a different thing to say "Did you visit them while we were apart?"

"For a time." The Doctor admitted. "But I didn't stick around too long."

"Why?"

"Madame Vastra is very nosey, and while my other face was more than happy to succumb to her manipulations I, my dear, am not."

That made Clara grin as she imagined the amount of times the Doctor had stormed away from the lizard lady. The adrenaline was wearing from her now, leaving her feeling drained, and she snuggled her head further into the crook of the Doctors neck more curious than ever at how long he would allow this 'touching' to continue. He didn't seem concerned at all though, and continued to stroke her hair, brushing it over her shoulder ever so slightly.

"Maybe we should go back so you can apologise to her" Clara yawned "I don't doubt that you snapped at her a few times."

He made another agreeing noise, completely aware that the girl was starting to fall asleep against him. He brushed her hair again habitually, and his knuckles grazed slightly over the bite mark on her skin, which was still fresh and bruised no matter how old it appeared. He hoped she'd not notice – but of course she did.

"Doctor?" she asked "About the bite mark…"

The Doctor heaved a sigh – he knew she'd not stop nagging about it until he gave her _some _information. "It's just a mark Clara" he lied a little white lie – okay a big white lie, but so long as she didn't know that… "I'm sorry but it won't go away but it will stop hurting."

"Oh" Clara wasn't sure how she felt about having a bite scar on her neck forever. "Why did you do it?"

"Because they were going to sell you off as a slave – let's face it you're young and a female, you'd have been bought in a snap. That mark lets people know that you're under my protection. Good news is if we ever go to a planet that has that kind of trade going on you should be safe – it's a universally known mark."

"Oh, do you often run around biting people?"

He looked down at her then with a raised eyebrow. "No" he told her, looking away finally "You're the first – and last I should think."

For some reason the idea of him biting anyone else irked her greatly and she found herself saying "_Good_" with a solid determination. She glanced up to see if he had noticed feeling slightly embarrassed, but she was sure she saw a slight hint of a smile on his face before he turned away.

"Maybe you should try get some rest Clara? Your mind is probably exhausted after all that excitement, and you where tidying up most of the day – looks like you'll have to do it again…" he looked around the room.

Clara weakly punched the Doctor's chest, feeling him chuckle as she replied "You can bloody well help me this time Doctor…"


	5. Chapter 5

**CHAPTER FIVE**

The Doctor was right of course – when the TARDIS systems came back on line everything from lights to console screen and lights was brighter, the engines louder and the air in the ship practically buzzed with aliveness. Clara rather liked it – the Doctor said some of the energy was bleeding into her because she was human – but it made her feel like a kid with a sugar rush. The Doctor said it made him nauseous and he couldn't wait to get out of the ship when they landed in Victorian London.

More peculiarly, he had insisted she wore a scarf besides her rather elegant but simple black Victorian dress. She obliged, mostly to stop him nagging, though later realised that he was probably trying to hide the bite mark on her neck from Madame Vastra.

The Lizard lady was waiting outside the blue box in the courtyard when they exited – the Doctor practically ran outside, nearly bowling over Strax, and Clara followed in a walk with an amused smile and a roll of her eyes.

"Doctor, what's wrong?" Vastra sounded concerned.

"He's just being a big baby – the TARDIS is practically radiating energy from a solar flare, I quite like it but it makes the Doctor so energized he feels sick."

The Doctor, who was bent in half with his hands on his knees growled at her "If you had my sensitive psyche you'd understand why it feels horrible!"

"I don't know Doctor – I can feel the energy from here and I must say I rather like it…" Vastra took a step closer to the TARDIS with her eyes shut, looking like she was trying to sunbathe in a sunlamp.

The Doctor muttered something that sounded suspiciously like '_Women_' and walked off, apparently stretching his legs around the courtyard. Clara shook her head at him and decided not to comment, turning to Vastra – who was now suddenly very close, her nose only a few inches from Clara's as she stared with wide eyes. "Why it is you miss Clara – I had heard you were gone for good." She said after a few minutes of staring.

Clara, who hadn't blinked until Vastra spoke, smiled with an almost relived expression. "Yes, I'm back – someone needs to look after the Doctor don't they?" she joked.

"True" the Lizard lady smiled in return.

"Hey!" the Doctor sounded indigent.

"Well, why don't you come inside and Strax shall fetch us some tea – Jenny should be along in a moment, she has popped out to the shop – we have currently a rather interesting case that you might like to ponder over Doctor, though I hardly believe it has anything _alien_ to do with it… but it is most peculiar…" Vastra sounded distracted and almost bitter at the end of her sentence, and the hand that had taken Clara's and threaded it through her arm tightened briefly almost making her fingers snap. But Clara didn't mention anything – she did shoot the Doctor a look, but he was too busy looking intrigued by Vastra's mystery.

The Lizard lady took them in through the kitchen – asking Strax to make tea, which he complained about especially when she told him he was not allowed to make 'explosive' tea whatever that was – but said nothing about her case until after they had settled into the wicker seats of her green room. A palm plant brushed Clara's face slightly, and her memory was thrown back to a memory that wasn't hers, an echo that had needed the Doctor's help and come to the veiled detective.

_Clara_.

She was snapped out of the memory suddenly, a voice echoing in her mind. It made her frown – but she noticed the Doctor and Madame Vastra watching her so she wiped the frown from her face quickly and replaced it with a reassuring smile.

The Doctor cleared his throat. "Well Madame, what is your peculiar mystery?"

For the first time Clara saw Madame Vastra look uncomfortable. "Well, it does seem that a certain loathsome murderer is back – though I don't honestly see how that is possible for I was so sure…"

"Madame" the Doctor said to bring her back on track.

"Ah right – yes well, it does seem as though Jack the Ripper has made a return to the streets of London…"

The Doctor paused, eyeing the lizard lady up – and then he chuckled. "Are you saying Madame that you ate the wrong man?"

"_Doctor!"_ Clara hissed – she didn't think it was very funny to joke about Madame Vastra eating a possibly innocent man.

Madame Vastra looked peeved. "I most certainly did not eat the wrong man – I was completely certain it was him, and there is no doubt as I discovered that monster exiting Millers Court with enough of poor Mary Kelly's blood on him that I could _taste_ it."

"So you think it's a copycat?" Clara asked, cutting across the Doctor would opened his mouth with a mischievous glint in his eyes – she just knew he was going to poke more fun at Vastra so stopped him before he could start. He looked irritated.

"Well that is what Scotland Yard thinks…"

"But you disagree?" the Doctor asked.

Vastra was quiet, looking into space with a troubled expression. "Yes" she finally admitted "I am not sure why, but I hardly think this is a copycat. The murders are both too similar and yet too different, something about them just feels…"

"Off?" Clara supplied when she seemed to struggle for a word.

"Yes. Yes 'off' describes it well enough."

"Well… when you were finished with the man you believed to be the ripper" the Doctor had stood and begun pacing so apparently he did not notice the look Vastra shot him for the words of doubt. "Did you leave anything behind? I do believe you said he was rather stringy – I would not blame you for leaving leftovers."

This was the point in the conversation when Clara was concerned why this subject didn't bother her more. She supposed at some point in life she had just become used to lizard ladies eating murderers…

Madame Vastra glanced briefly at Clara as though concerned she would cause her offence before she said "As a matter of fact humans are not the best tasting mammal on this earth… there is always leftovers."

The Doctor looked at Clara then, as though considering what she might taste like. She raised an eyebrow and glared at him, almost considered telling him to try take a bite out of her – and then remembered that he already _had_ done that. She tried not to grin at her own joke – which earned her a funny look from the Doctor who'd still been watching her.

"So I assume he was buried?"

"Under an anonymous name, yes."

"We should check he is still there. Now, what are the differences in the murders – thanks potato." The Doctor accepted a cup of tea from Strax, patting his bald head as he did so.

Clara frowned at the Doctor but said nothing as she accepted another cup from Strax. "Thank you Strax" she said politely – the Potato smiled and grunted before he retreated to the side of the room, taking an entire tin of biscuits with him.

Madame Vastra sighed looking the most stressed a lizard lady could. "Well, if this is Jack the Ripper than he has evolved and begun to sexually assault his victims too – like stabbing and mutilation wasn't enough for him anymore. This is one of the reasons Scotland Yard think it is a copycat. Another would be the change in his method, while he is still mutilating girls faces he is not always slashing them to death…"

Before anyone could speak again the door of the room opened and Jenny Flint stepped inside. She had started to complain about something – a horse that wouldn't move on the road apparently causing the Victorian equivalent of a traffic jam – before she looked up and noticed the Doctor and Clara. "Oh Doctor!" she smiled "and Clara – I was worried we'd never be seeing you again miss!"

"Can't get rid of me that easy" Clara replied.

"Well I hope you won't mind me saying but I'm glad of that Ma'am."

The Doctor cleared his throat before Clara could reply. "Well Madame – your mystery is intriguing. I saw that tonight we investigate if your… leftovers of the ripper are still buried where you left them. I imagine you remember where they are exactly?"

"Yes of course." The Madame looked thoughtful, then turned to Jenny. "My dear I wish you not to come with me on this particular excursion."

"You don't want me to go grave digging? How could I ever be disappointed with that?" Jenny asked, her expression a little sarcastic. It made Madame Vastra smile good naturedly.

"Well, if we are done here Doctor I imagine it is about time I got back to my painting. You know by now how to make yourself at home here?" Madame Vastra asked rhetorically as she stood to leave the room, Jenny and Strax – who was covered in cookie crumbs and looking far too happy – followed her. The Doctor nodded in reply.

"Do you really think she ate the wrong man?" Clara asked once she was sure Vastra was out of ear shot.

The Doctor snorted. "It is unlikely – I have never know her to be wrong before, and she never eats anyone unless she is sure. The fact the man she ate was still covered in Mary Kelly's blood is convincing."

"So what do you think is going on?"

The Doctor shrugged "I imagine it could be a copycat – but if Vastra is so sure something is '_off_' then something must be _off_ indeed." He looked at her, raising his eyebrows as he used the word she'd given Vastra.

Clara stood and shoved at his shoulder playfully – "Shut it" she grinned.

The Doctor grabbed her wrist as she shoved him and held it in a loose but firm grip. She twisted lightly, but it was barely an attempt to get free of his grip. "Clara…" he obviously had something to say and was struggling to phrase it, so she waited patiently. "I don't want you to come with us tonight either."

She frowned "What?"

"I don't want you to come tonight – stay here with Jenny and do…. Human girl stuff. Pillow fights and nail polish that stuff…"

Clara frowned "You know girls don't actually have underwear pillow fights right?"

He looked shocked "What?" his voice was stark "Who said anything about underwear pillow fights, what are you on about Clara?"

She grinned a little sheepishly "Sorry- it's a human thing back in my time… men are convinced women get stripped down to their underwear and have pillow fights – anyway… why don't you want me to come tonight?"

He didn't say anything for a moment, looking at her with wide eyes and Clara wondered briefly if he was thinking about underwear pillow fights. She had to say the image had popped into her head almost as soon as she had explained it too him, which was odd because she'd never imagined herself in such skimpy blue underwear pillow fighting before. Actually she'd never imagined the whole scenario before. She shook her head as if to banish the image, and it seemed to break the Doctor from his trance.

"Uh, I – "he cleared his throat "I just feel you would be safer here with Jenny is all…"

"You've never been concerned about that kind of thing before?" Clara protested "And surely I'd be safer _with _you…"

His grip on her wrist tightened briefly and his jaw clenched, but he forced himself to relax. "We don't normally go places where there are murdering rapists either Clara. Just stay here and do as you're told."

That set Clara's back up. "Do as I'm told?" she hissed at him "I am not a child!"

"I never said you where – though for someone protesting that they are not a child you are certainly acting like one now!"

She scoffed "Oh, says the man who is practically an overgrown toddler?"

The Doctor dropped her wrist, not looking at her as he was leaving the room he snapped over his shoulder "Be quiet Clara and do as you're told. You are to stay here with Mrs Jenny Flint tonight and that is the end of it!"

He left Clara in Vastra's green room furiously clenching her fists and resisting both a few childish words and the temptation to throw one of the potted plants at him.

Later that night the Doctor, Madame Vastra and Strax left Jenny and Clara alone in the house. The Doctor hadn't spoken or even looked at Clara since their argument, and Clara hadn't tried to broach any conversation with him either. Jenny noticed of course, especially once they had left and she asked Jenny if she wanted to go to her room on the TARDIS and find something interesting to do. Of course Jenny said yes – so they ended up sat on Clara's bed in the TARDIS (who was still humming with power, energizing the two young woman in a way that caffeine could not) and Clara was showing Jenny some of the nail polish she had from the twenty first century and painting her toe nails for her.

"You must see some amazing things with the Doctor here miss" Jenny said as she watched Clara paint her nails, the ship around them humming.

"Yeah…" Clara tried not to get angry at just the mention of the Doctor. "I do hate it when he leaves me behind like this – it's usually how he ends up in god knows how much trouble. You must see your share of amazing this with Madame Vastra – I mean, she is a lizard…"

Jenny laughed "True, but I'll never again see different planets or deep space – not that I want to actually I'm still having issues after Trenzalore…"

Clara winced, remembering that Jenny had almost died.

"Ha-ha well you wouldn't want to visit them with the Doctor – some are pretty awesome, but usually something's trying to kill him or you or everything…"

"Every one of them?" Jenny laughed.

"Four times out of five." Clara assured her – but then sighed "Are you not at all irritated that Madame Vastra left you behind?"

"Irritated?" Sounded shocked "Why would I be irritated? They went grave digging – probably if we were there we would just be helping Strax do the digging. And I'm not too interested in seeing half eaten corpse – if it's still there."

Clara supposed she had a point.

"Anyway, if the case progresses in the way Madame thinks it will she'll allow me to help."

Clara wore a grim expression as she said "I wish I was that sure of the Doctor…"

"He's just looking out for you ma'am…" Jenny tried.

"Well I'm not a child." Clara protested with irritation as she finished Jenny's toenails and put away the polish, deciding she was also irritated with her hair being up in a tight bun so she began to loosen it with her hands. "I don't need him to treat me like one."

Jenny sighed "I don't think he means to treat you like a child – he's just a bit…"

"Grumpy?"

"I was going to say stubborn, and he doesn't like it when people disobey him, but I suppose grumpy works too." Jenny laughed.

Clara chuckled, slipping the itchy scarf from her neck and chucking it to the chair across the room and massaging the skin there. She sat back down on the bed with Jenny and sighed. "He always gets into far too much trouble when I'm not there…"

"He gets into trouble anyway"

"Yes but if I'm there I feel much better about it and…" Clara hesitated "… and sometimes he needs a conscious voice to speak out for him." She remembered what he had said once _'ah yes, she's my carer. She cares so I don't have too'_. That phrase had more meaning that she'd first understood. "Sometimes he just seems to get… confused over good and bad I guess. Maybe it's this regeneration, maybe he was just a bit muddled in the beginning…"

Jenny had nothing to say, she bit her lip and thought. "You know, if you're that worried you could just go find him…"

Clara bit her lip and looked at Jenny. "I don't know where they are…"

"But I do" Jenny grinned.

"But" Clara frowned "Vastra told you to stay home – and you said you didn't want to go…"

"Yeah but I've changed my mind, and I hate seeing you panic so much. And you're right, you didn't see the state the Doctor was in without you, he does need you…" Jenny smirked getting off the bed and pulling on her shoes again. Clara got the hint and wrapped her hair back up in a much more loose bun, leading Jenny out of the TARIDS feeling an anticipation building in her – she wasn't sure if that was due to the TARDIS radiating energy or the idea of disobeying the Doctor.

As they were going out the door Jenny gasped loudly. Clara turned, worried suddenly and asked "What? What is it?"

"What happened to your neck?" Jenny pointed to the bite – Clara had forgotten to put the scarf back on as they were leaving, and she wasn't going to run back and get it.

"Oh, uh, it was the Doctor he bit me-"

"He bit you!"

"Yeah but only to stop these slave traders from selling me!" Clara defended, even though she was still pretty irritated with him. "It doesn't matter, he said it's just a mark. Come on, let's go find them."

Jenny said nothing else about the bite mark, but she did stare a little.

Eventually she did say "You know they're going to be furious we followed them when they said not too don't you?"

"Of course. I don't care. Do you?"

Jenny shrugged "Not particularly – but she's my wife, and she's used to me not doing as she says. The Doctor he's your-"Jenny seemed to be searching for the right word.

"He's my best friend" Clara prompted insistently, she was getting used to people assuming they were more however. "And he really should be used to my stubbornness by now…"

They grinned at each other.


	6. Chapter 6

**Okay I've had a few questions when I shall update this story and other's I'm writing and basically I've been way too swamped with Uni work to work on fics lately. However this week I finish University for the summer, so as you can imagine, one of my priorities for the summer is going to be finishing these fics (hopefully anyway, i have high hopes). Anyway, this is Chapter Six and I hope you enjoy it :) I'll get to updating other fics as soon as I finish my post-colonial literature essays :P **

* * *

**CHAPTER SIX**

The Doctor's face was set in a grim expression, he paced back and forth along the long drawing room in front of Clara. She was sorely tempted to point out that dirt still marred his magician's jacket and his trousers and that he still smelled like rotting flesh from the graveyard but he was already angry enough so she kept her mouth shut.

Madame Vastra sat in a chair along the table. Jenny sat with her. The lizard lady also looked angry and upset, but at least she and Jenny where speaking in hushed undertones so as not to be overheard. The Doctor hadn't said one word to Clara since he'd practically dragged her back to the house from the graveyard.

The Doctor finally stopped pacing. It was doing nothing for his anger anyway, it still burned through his blood as hatred burned through a Dalek. He looked down at Clara, but she didn't look the least bit sorry for her actions – why couldn't she see that he was just worried for her safety? She sat there and glared at him with her arms crossed and chin turned upwards as if daring him to say anything, like a petulant teenager. He almost said that out loud, stopping himself at the last second knowing it would do nothing but get them into an argument and he didn't want that again. He didn't want to head down the road that might split them up again. In the end he turned on his heel and strode out of the room – leaving Clara with Madame Vastra and Jenny, all of them surprised by his sudden retreat.

Clara let out the breath she had been holding and felt herself deflate.

"Well done Miss Clara – I think you have pushed our Doctor to his limit regarding yourself." Madame Vastra's voice cut through the tension in the room like a knife – but she didn't sound angry, more amused.

"Why aren't you angry with me too?" she asked.

"Me?" Madame Vastra turned to her with surprise. "You are not my responsibility Clara, it is the Doctor's job to keep you safe. Not that I would ever allow harm to come to you however, I have very few friends and I would be somewhat disappointed to lose one."

Clara felt strangely flattered that the lizard lady thought of her as a friend.

"Not to mention I somewhat predicted that you might follow us – you have a notorious stubborn streak."

Clara made a 'so-so' sign with her hand although she knew the lady was right. "I don't understand why he is so angry – I've done this before, he should have expected it, and he knows me far better than you – no offence."

"None taken… but I may have an idea why he cares about this so much…" the Lizard lady turned to fix her emerald gaze on Clara's brown one – practically pinning her to the chair.

"O-oh?" Clara was curious but wary.

"Jenny has told me of a mark – a bite – that the Doctor inflicted on you… May I see it?"

"Oh… uh… I guess so…" Clara stood and came around the table, sitting in the chair offered to her by Madame Vastra she pushed her hair aside and pulled down the hem of her dress so she could see it better. She smiled when it tickled as Vastra ran her scaled fingers across the skin, and hissed when she pressed lightly into the bruise.

"Hmm, thought so." Vastra pulled away looking thoughtful. "Exactly what has the Doctor told you about this mark?"

"Just that it will stop anyone trying to sell me in the slave trade again, and that the mark won't go away."

"Stupid man" Vastra practically spat – making Clara jump and Jenny looked surprised too. "Sorry my dear" she apologised "It's just that the Doctor really should have thought better about this – because he's right the mark is irreversible…"

"What do _you_ know about it?"

Vastra looked torn between telling her and not. "Fine, I shall explain – really the Doctor should be doing this but if he hasn't done it by now then I take it as a sign he is avoiding it entirely." She sighed. "Marking is a bonding ritual known across the universe. Even humans such as yourself are common with marking, though yours do faded – I believe humans call them love bites? – Because as a species you are rather uninclined towards monogamy – though we shall leave the anthropologists to argue over that statement. Normally bonding such as that is only done between lovers, mates, husbands and wives. A mark like yours Clara cannot be undone, some species are like that, it's an odd thing… anyway, the bond it can create varies. With species like humans it is very little. With species such as mine and the Doctors… Clara have you not felt funny recently? Had some hint of a difference within you? A voice perhaps?"

She thought about it. "…Yes. Yes I heard a voice, in my head, but I thought it was nothing…"

Vastra looked unsurprised. "Time lords are a race who have an affinity for the mind so that does not surprise me. And have you or the Doctor acted funny? A sudden urge perhaps?"

Clara thought back to the TARDIS during the solar flare. The way the Doctor had held her with ease, stroking her hair. The way she had felt a sudden surge of jealousy at the idea of the Doctor biting anyone else. She nodded.

Vastra looked grim now. "Yes well, if it has only been a few days than the bond is just beginning. It shall get worse…" she looked curiously at Clara suddenly. "It is curious however, the bonding between two species as different as yours and the Doctors…"

Clara grimaced sitting back, not at all liking the feeling of being an experiment.

"I'm sorry but that is all I can tell you – it's the extent of my knowledge on the matter… really, you should talk to the Doctor…" Madame Vastra lay a comforting hand across Clara's and squeezed.

Clara stood slipping her hand out from the lizard lady's. "I can't!" she cried with irritation "Whenever I do he gets angry or he finds a distraction…"

Madame Vastra made a face that said this news did not surprise her. "Perhaps the TARDIS has books on the subject that you can find?"

"Yeah…" Clara trailed off, wondering why she hadn't thought of that before. Probably because she hadn't know exactly what this bite was. "How did a bite bond us?" she asked rhetorically – but Vastra replied.

"Did the Doctor do anything after he bit you?"

Clara thought. "Yes – he made me swallow something…" she trailed off, thinking.

"Something?" she was spurred on.

"I… I think it was his blood… I don't know I didn't see but his arm was bleeding and he had a gash on it that wasn't there before and it did taste coppery – but it was too solid to be blood…"

"Flesh" Vastra supplied. "It was his flesh. To truly bond you need to eat his flesh and he yours…"

Clara felt rather sick again, Vastra and Jenny must have saw her nausea because they said nothing again for a long time. After a little while, Clara announced in a tired voice "I'm going to find the Doctor…" _because she needed answers_. Neither women tried to stop her as she left the drawing room and headed to the spare bedrooms upstairs.

She knocked on the door of the room reserved for the Doctor several times, but there was no answer. She tired the handle and found it open, but looking inside she found no Doctor. She looked in three more spare rooms, the green room and Vastra's library but couldn't find him anywhere. In the Library she was starting to get worried – she passed by a window and looked down into the courtyard and noticed the TARDIS was gone.

Her heart stopped. She ran outside as fast as she could, footsteps clicking on the floors, but sure enough when she got outside there was no TARDIS, just a square shape in the straw of the courtyard floor. She got de-ja-vu, the Doctor had done this when he had first regenerated. She ran back inside and found Madame Vastra and Jenny leaving the drawing room.

"The TARDIS – the Doctor – he's gone." She panted.

"What?"

"The Doctor – he's just _gone!_" she tried not to panic and failed miserably. In her head she knew he'd be back, he hadn't left her behind last time after all there was little reason for him to do that now, but something in her panicked horribly – _what if she never saw him again? She needed him… what? Since when did she need him? But she did, suddenly, she found she did need him… _

"Clara don't panic – don't let that panic win…" Vastra said as if she knew Clara's thoughts (though the thoughts felt alien to her). "He won't leave you behind, he will never leave you behind…"

"I know…"

"He's probably just gone off somewhere to calm down – he was pretty angry…" Jenny tried.

"Probably…" Clara felt better when someone else voiced her thoughts too.

"He'll be back." Vastra assured as Jenny wrapped an arm around Clara's shoulders and led her up the stairs. "But for now I think it is best you get some rest – it has been a long night for all involved…"

"Yeah, okay…"

"The Doctor will probably be back when you wake ma'am" Jenny smiled warmly.

"Yeah probably." She sighed, horribly worried she'd made him go away. When he got back she knew she would have to apologise… but she was going to punch him too.

The Doctor crept as silently as he could into the bedroom. He knew it was early dawn and he knew he probably shouldn't be there, but he couldn't help it. He felt compelled to come there, to check she was okay, to see her…

He slipped into the room and see her clearly in the bed, curled on the side so he could see her face, her brown hair feathered onto the pillow behind her. That should have been enough. He could see her, she was fine. And yet he didn't leave – instead he shut the door, forgetting to do it slowly, and it clicked loudly behind him. He almost saw the exact moment she woke up.

Clara heard a click and her eyes snapped open, at first unable to see anything in the dark, her eyes soon focused on a familiar figure in the dark. She sat up immediately, narrowing her gaze suspiciously.

"Doctor?" she asked with a hopeful lilt to her voice. She hated that.

"Clara" his voice was like music to her ears and she sighed with relief.

"Oh thank god I thought you were someone else…"

"Who?" he asked immediately, a jealous surge in him as he frowned.

She heard that jealously and decided to play with it in revenge for his disappearing act. "None of your business."

The sound of him grinding his teeth practically echoed in the room, but she ignored it. Instead she picked up the pillow from behind her head, seeing him walking towards her in the dark, she threw the pillow at him and watched his bewildered expression as the pillow hit his chest. He bent over and picked up the pillow, handing it back to her. "What was that for?" he frowned.

"For disappearing. Be glad I had nothing heavier within reach."

"I'm sorry" he said not sounding sorry at all "but I needed time to calm down or risk another argument with you – I don't want to go down that road again Clara, I don't want to risk us splitting up again."

"Oh I figured that out, and I understood that." She said.

"Then what is the matter?"

"You have a time machine. You've been gone for six freaking days!" she hit him with the pillow again before putting it back behind her head and leaning against it again. "You had me worried sick- what if you were in trouble or something?"

"Sorry" he actually sounded apologetic this time. "I had meant to come back six hours later, I must have input wrong…"

"Which wouldn't be the first time…" she teased.

"I'm touched you were so worried"

"Yes, well." She smirked "I wasn't thrilled with the idea of being stuck in Victorian London for the rest of my life – it smells."

Clara moved to the other side of the bed suddenly, keeping herself under the blanket however to try stave off the cold, and patted the place she'd just vacated. When the Doctor remained standing, just watching her, she grabbed his arm and pulled him down to sit beside her on the bed. "So where did you go? Or did you just stay in the TARDIS?"

He said nothing for a few moments, before he looked at her "I went to the moon and thought about the egg."

"Oh?" she hadn't expected that.

"I remembered our argument when you threatened to leave?"

Clara just frowned at him now.

He shrugged and looked a tiny bit embarrassed. "I never want us to have an argument like that again. You managed to both insult me completely and utterly _and_ make me feel like the worst person in the universe. It that second I would've completely believed you could slap me so hard I'd regenerate. I thought I was doing the right thing. I thought you knew that I would come back, that I would never leave you, that I was trusting you completely to make the right decision without me. I realised later that I was not very clear about that…"

"I think I was a bit unfair too…" she tried.

"No. I believe you were completely within your right to yell at me like that. The same as I am within my right now to still be angry that you followed us to that graveyard."

Clara sighed, she hadn't really thought he'd forgotten about that but that didn't stop her hoping at least. "I'm sorry, but I'm not sorry" she told him, hoping she actually made sense.

"Oh?" he didn't sound angry, just tired.

"Yes. I followed you because when I'm not with you I feel very uncomfortable – especially if there is something out there that could harm you… and let's face it, pretty much everything we know of is gunning for you Timelord."

The Doctor nodded, listening, and apparently understanding what she meant.

"-and I know little old human me isn't going to do much to stop whatever's trying to kill you short of being a distraction or a moving target-" he frowned at that, but she held up a hand so he would not interrupt her "-but that feeling to keep an eye on you has just gotten stronger. And I think I know why."

He stared at her and said nothing.

"Madame Vastra told me the truth about this bite mark Doctor." she confessed, watching his face for any sign of what he was feeling.

"Oh?" was all he said, voice carefully school so she could not tell what he was feeling. He would have been successful baffling her, if it wasn't for the way his eyes widened with worry and she realized he was anxious about her reaction.

"Why didn't you just tell me the truth?" she asked.

The Doctor shifted uncomfortably "because it means nothing Clara. I did it in the spur of the moment to prevent slavers selling you on – where I might not have been able to track you down – I didn't want you to read too much into it."

Clara wasn't totally sure she believed that, but decided to go along with his meagre explanation for now. "Why not explain anyway? It would've stopped me feeling completely insane – that _was_ your voice I heard in my head wasn't it?"

"Yes"

"And… well… Madame Vastra said she doesn't know a lot about this, apparently it's rare, but she said whatever bond this has created between us is only just starting so I imagine there might be something more down the line that could get complicated. Where you just going to never tell me and hope you could ignore everything?" He made a so-so kind of face and shrugged, so Clara assumed that was a yes.

"Enough about this… this bond Clara. It means little to nothing alright?"

"But-"

"No buts Clara. I don't want to speak about this." He sighed again and Clara stopped. He just looked so tired. "About you following me to the graveyard. I understand your point of view, this mark amplified your concern for my actions, but it has done the same to me. I cannot risk you anymore than you can risk me."

"Then why don't me stay together from now on?" she suggested.

The Doctor was shaking his head thought "no that won't work either Clara. I need to know you are safe, otherwise you're are a distraction. What if we are in real danger, but so are other people, and I am too distracted by your safety to save them?"

"Then I think we're in a real dilemma because I'm too worried about _your _safety."

"Clara-"

"-okay" she said gently, hearing the heatedness in his voice. She understood anyway. "Okay. I'll try not to distract you with my in-danger-nous."

"That's not a word Clara."

She shoved him playfully "you know what I mean. Now, do the others know your back?"

"No."

"Should I feel flattered you came to me first?" she teased, giggling at his glare. "You really should go see them, they were rather worried. I believe Strax was trying to re-build one of this guns into some kind of TARDIS beacon… you might want to destroy it before he tests it, it might blow her up or something."

The Doctor stood, pulling a face in distaste. "Should I expect you downstairs for breakfast shortly?" he asked over his shoulder as he was leaving.

"Yes dear, but I am going to wash up and dress first" she grinned.

He half turned towards her, eyes wide and frowning "_'Yes dear'_" he quoted her, perplexed.

She laughed at him loudly "well, on some planets you know this means we're married. Vastra and Strax did know that much."

His scowl increased and she swore she saw him blush very lightly "we are _not_ married, and don't ever call me that again."

She laughed again as she left the room and called after him "Yes dear!"


End file.
